Tag Archives: Salt

The term condiment comes from the Latin condimentum, meaning “spice, seasoning, sauce” and from the Latin condere, meaning “preserve, pickle, season”

Wikipedia (T. Nealon)

While on multi day hikes, Three Points of the Compass now carries food in a wide mouth food bag from Z Packs. This dedicated food bag has a wide opening to make poking around inside easier and can hold anything from pre-prepared meals, to pasta/noodles/instant mash/oats/tortillas, to pouch fish, squeezy cheese, yeast flakes, jerky etc. plus a brew kit.

I do like to ensure that I have just a few extras that may add a little flavour to my meals. For a week’s walk this has usually just comprised of salt and pepper in the little paper sachets that can be picked up in fast food outlets. But with time counting down to my Long Walk, commencing April 2018, I have decided to expand on this slightly.

Below are the handful of additions I will be carrying. The idea of carrying these may be absolute anathema to purist lightweighters, but over time, the fairly bland and repetitive nature of stock carbs can get a little boring and a handful of condiments can go a long way to relieving this. With care, such additions add negligible weight to a reasonably lightweight set-up. And a little goes a long way.

A small selection of spices and condiments that will add flavour to meals on the trail

I could very easily get carried away with what I wished to plunder my store cupboard for, but eventually settled on just five, these are:

Crushed and dried chillies

Dried garlic flakes

Tellicherry freshly crushed peppercorns

Smoked Sea Salt

Mixed dried herbs

I have found in the past that the little baggies I use tend to split after repeated opening and frequently don’t like closing after a while due to the fineness of the contents clogging the grooves of the closure. I could use contact lens cases instead but not only do these not hold a great deal but they are fairly weighty considering the original negligible weight of the condiments. Storing in straws, folded back and tucked into themselves is another way, but just a tad fiddly. The various spice holders produced by GSI are well made but simply too heavy, Tic Tac containers get crushed and split, the old 35mm film canisters (remember them?) have the lid pop off when you don’t want it to. None of the various multi compartment pill containers I have seen are light enough, So instead, I purchased a small range of cheap and cheerful lightweight aluminium tins from eBay and selected what I felt was the most appropriate size, which was the smallest, 15ml size. Each empty tins weighs just four and a half grams.

In addition, I have a small bottle of Olive Oil. This is decanted into a 60ml Nalgene bottle that weighs 16g empty. Full, it weighs 74g. The five full tins collectively weigh 72g, but that weight will constantly drop.

Small aluminium screw top tins are easily available online. These are just five of the many sizes on the market- 15ml- 4.5g, 25ml- 6.3g, 30ml- 7.6g, 50ml- 10.1g and 80ml- 14.3g. They can be easily dented and knocked around due to their thin metal, but still hold up well once the lid is screwed on

I could have added dried onion, dried vegetables or dried mushrooms to the above selection but many supermarkets and smaller shops stock quite small packs of these which can be picked up in many towns on trail, unlike the more flavoursome, often uncommon, quality ingredients listed above. I am still considering on swapping out my dehydrated garlic for garlic salt, and I do wonder if I should have added celery salt or my lovely smoked paprika…

Three Points of the Compass snacking on dried fruit in the English Lake District, autumn 2015

The advantages of snacking on trail mix throughout a long days hiking are well known. Keeping a steady inward trickle of calories avoids the energy slumps that can come up so slowly but manifest themselves so suddenly.

There are many favourites amongst hikers, jelly babies and jelly beans, Snickers and Mars bars, energy gels and drinks, protein bars and oak cakes, nuts and Jaffa cakes. I have chatted before on one particular sticky favourite of mine- Sesame Snaps. Many embrace the various pre-prepared trail mixes that are produced though it is almost as easy to produce a far more flavoursome mix yourself.

Dried fruit

Another favourite of mine is dried fruit. These usually contain only naturally occurring sugars (fructose) and a bare minimum of salt. Some fruits such as cranberries, cherries, strawberries and mango may have had a sweetener added either prior to or following drying. Others such as cherries, papaya, kiwi and pineapple may have been soaked in heated sugar syrup (which draws out the moisture and preserves the fruit) and are more properly candied rather than dried fruit. However it is often possible to find fruits that have not undergone either such adulteration.

Drying fruit for later consumption is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Figs, dates, apricots and apples have long been prepared in this manner, as have raisins, which today form about half of the dried fruit consumed globally. Most of the nutritional value of the fruit is retained. Of additional benefit is the low to moderate Glycaemic Index (GI) of dried fruit. Therefore more slowly digested, absorbed and metabolised. This means a slower rise in blood sugar level and insulin level due to the slow release of glucose into the bloodstream, far more suited to an activity such as hiking over a sustained period.

Another advantage of consuming dried fruit is that as the water (weight) is withdrawn, the nutrients are condensed into a smaller and lighter product. While I don’t use a dehydrator myself, many hikers and backpackers like to produce fruit ‘leathers’ with a dehydrator that not only provide the aforementioned calorific boost and nutritional value, but are also further reduced in bulk.

Some pre-prepared bags of dried fruit are small and expensive- however very tasty! These small bags of baked and dried strawberries and pineapple provide around a 100kcal each. Each 35g portion contains 24g carbohydrate, of which 20g is naturally occurring fruit sugar

Other advantages are reduced or zero fat and increased amounts of fibre over same sized servings pre-drying. Dried fruits are also often a good provider of antioxidants, which can fight heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and some degenerative diseases of the brain.

While I do occasionally buy one or more of the small pre-prepared pouches of fruit, I tend to get the larger bags, usually intended for cooking with. A good tasty mix can be made, possibly adding a few cracked nuts, and any amount can be taken in a zip-lock baggie. The mix shown above is some of that left over from making the family Christmas Puds! It consists of currants, raisins, sultanas, cranberries and blueberries. I find the chopped dried dates, prunes and glacé cherries which are also part of the finished mix too sticky to use as trail snacks. But I do like to take dried mango (a favourite), apricots and figs with me.

Another bonus is that dried fruit is not difficult to find. They have the advantage of being pretty much universally available in many shops. If not in the baking area, then in ‘healthy eating’ or snacking parts of the shelves.

Those who read an earlier post will have noted that I took a water filter with me on my recent six day backpacking trip along The Ridgeway. The path itself is some 87 miles but I chose to start at Avebury, adding a handful of miles to my total. That, combined with a couple of short side-trails to overnight stops, meant that I covered 106 miles in total.

Most springs and rivers occur below the level of The Ridgeway and accessing them often means descending off trail

The Ridgeway is not an exclusively ridge walk. For much of its distance it traverses the hills above the villages and towns situated at the spring line on lower contours. It can be quite dry on the trail yet water intake has to be maintained by the hiker throughout.

Day two, especially, was a wet day for me on The Ridgeway. This was in contrast to the strong sun, high temperatures and lack of cover of the first day. Regardless of conditions, it is important to stay well-hydrated throughout the day to lessen fatigue and maintain progress

So, did I find a water filter of use? Simply put- no. Even without finding it necessary to leave the trail specifically to seek out water, I did not need to use a filter at all. If not abundant, I certainly found that with a little planning I could carry all the water that I required and kept well hydrated throughout. This was partly achievable because almost all of my overnight halts were at recognised sites. The only night I wild-camped, I took an extra litre with me for that night. I usually drank at least a litre of water, sometimes as much as one and a half, each night. This would mostly be in liquid form, water, tea or my favoured OXO. Some water was used to rehydrate meals.

Most water taps are well-signposted from the path

All of the water points that I located on the trail were sign-posted, were working and provided good, fresh, cold water. I started out on the walk carrying 1900ml of water with me in two 850ml Smartwater bottles. This was enough to see me through my short half day to my first halt at a farm near Ogbourne St. George. There is supposed to be a water tap available at Southend (SU198734), just prior to the village, but I failed to locate it. I camped in the horse paddock of Fox Lynch, filling up for that evening and the following day from a tap in the farm yard. If stopping for water there, do ask first as not all of the taps provide potable water.

Day two saw me set off with 1900ml. I refilled one empty bottle (850ml) at a tap on the path near farm buildings at Idstone Hill (SU263835). This day was especially wet compared to my first day. When it is raining it can be difficult to drink sufficient fluids and I was careful to keep a high intake.

Water tap at Idstone Hill

Further along there is another tap near Hill Farm (SU338854). Again, I took the opportunity to not only drink a bottle of water (850ml) but fill up as well. This saw me through to my days end at Court Hill Centre (SU394844) south of Wantage where water is readily available to those staying, or for visitors on request.

Water tap near Hill Farm, it would be easy to miss some of these points amidst the growing vegetation

I set off on day three, again loaded with 1900ml of water though I could have carried less as the next ‘on path’ tap is apparently near Ilsley Barn Farm. I say apparently as I walked past the tap, or signage, or whatever there was, without seeing it. Fortunately this is a fairly short stretch and my two bottles easily saw me to Streatley where there are many town facilities, including the YHA very near to trail.

Water tap at crossing point near Grimsdyke Cottage, only shortly before reaching Nuffield

Day four, needless to say that I was well hydrated as I set off and also carrying water. A full load is not required as Nuffield is well provisioned. There is a very welcome tap (SU660871) at a Crossing Point only a little way before entering the village. However possibly the most welcome point is that at Holy Trinity Church in Nuffield (SU667873). There is a water tap in the exterior wall of the church but if you are fortunate, as I was, then you can enjoy the thoughtful provision of the local parishioners.

I stayed at a campsite that night- at White Mark Farm, two hundred metres or so from the path (SU697939). There is a water tap provided for walkers to the side of the entrance road to the site.

Water tap at the entrance to White Mark Farm, only a short distance from The Ridgeway

Keep an eye open for signage. This one pointed toward an unexpected source not far from Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve

The following day, day five, I was not expecting to pass any water taps and knew I had a wild camp to provide for, so carried an extra litre when I set off. Needlessly as I came across an unexpected water tap at (SU727976). This tap is not shown on the Harvey route map but is mentioned in the Cicerone guide.

Again, I took the opportunity to drink a full bottles worth (850ml) before filling up again and walking on. Obviously heavily laden but very necessary.

There are many opportunities to wild camp on The Ridgeway, none are officially sanctioned and the obvious rules apply- arrive late, stay discreet, set up late, leave early, leave no trace. I stayed that night at a pleasant location with a good view over the Vale of Aylesbury. A litre of water was plenty for my needs that evening but left little for the following morning.

Water tap at near Aston Rowant. On right, near building just before the first minor road after having passed beneath the M40

Crumbs in Wendover

The following day, day six (my final day on the trail) I had an early descent from height down into the nearby market town of Wendover to partake of a thoroughly unhealthy but, oh, so welcome, Full English Breakfast (and two mugs of tea) at Crumbs Sandwich Bar. While there, I asked them to fill up water bottles for me, thereby preparing me for my final day.

Does a cafe in Wendover count as a water point? Damn right it does…

This meant I was well provisioned for my remaining miles. I completed The Ridgeway a few minutes after two in the afternoon on day six and only had a two mile walk to Town Farm where I was camping that night. Water taps (SP949165) are situated some distance from the entrance to the site.

Dew ponds are situated at many points along The Ridgeway. Many are now restored and have butyl liners so no longer dry out as frequently as they used to. However water is intended for horses etc., is standing water and likely to be contaminated by animal faeces and is not recommended for human consumption,even following very necessary treatment and purification

Water on the stove for my post-hike OXO. Valuable rehydration and replacement of lost salts

Beyond a hot OXO at the end of each day (400ml), water for rehydrating meals and breakfast tea (400ml) with a home-mix breakfast, further liquid intake consisted of the odd pint or two in pubs at Ogbourne St. George, Streatley, Watlington and Ivinghoe Aston.

Cattle troughs are frequently encountered on The Ridgeway. Ballcocks are all automatic or closed from access. Only the water in the trough is accessible and definitely requires treatment. Alternative sources are recommended

Not that many public houses are actually passed on the trail itself. When they are, invariably it is at an inconvenient time and may be closed. Most easily utilised are those located not far from night stops, as here with the Carriers Arms near Watlington

The above is accurate to the month when written- May 2016. Circumstances are likely to alter over time and there is already a seasonal provision at some locations.

Five breakfasts, three lunches, five evening meals. Also an abundance of snacks for the day plus a brew kit

I have now sorted out the food for my week on the Ridgeway. I had considered keeping it lightweight, putting a bit of trade to the local shops etc. and buying as I went along. But instead I have looked on this as an opportunity to revisit lighter weight foods and have a closer look at calorific values, hence my taking almost all of my meals with me.

Where I am staying at a hostel, I have booked an evening meal and breakfast, plus a lunch to take with me the following day. I shall also simply take a cheese and pickle sandwich with me from home for Day 1.

Bagged and ready

Food is heavy stuff. There is no getting away from it. Even with care, the weight builds up. The little lot shown here originally weighed 4790g. That sounded frighteningly excessive so the custards, salamis and just a couple of treats were removed which bought it down to 3690g. But the heavier items are mostly toward the beginning of the hike and the weight will quickly drop. The final meal to be consumed is simply some Pop-Tarts on the final morning. Though I suspect they will be slightly crumbled by then.

I haven’t used the Mountain House type meals in decades. I think it was Raven meals in the 1980s that put me off them at the time. But, seeing as I had a Cotswold discount card knocking around, I included some meals by Mountain House and Adventure Food. I bought an extra to try at home, and to be honest, having sampled today’s offerings I am glad I am not relying on these totally. But still, the calorific value to weight penalty is rather good.

Lunches are mostly a couple of tortillas per day with a pouch fish (tuna or mackerel) and a nut butter (peanut or almond). Despite very rarely partaking at home, I have included some puds in my meal plan, simply to carry on packing in both calories and ensure proper rehydration in the evenings.

I thought I would have a play around and knock up one dried meal by myself. Not at all difficult to make a simple mac ‘n’ cheese. The one I have produced is also a little healthier as it misses out all the preservatives and oddities at the end of any packet ingredient list. Rehydration is quick and not only is is pretty tasty but the 195g (incl ziplock) also delivers 760kcal.

Lio-licious supply a rather lovely Red Leicester in dehydrated form. The Nido full-fat milk powder is, simply, the best dried milk powder on the market, while Orzo pasta (looking like a large grain of rice) cooks quickly and is slightly less bulky in this form. A fistful of dried vegetables adds some flavour and vitamins while a pinch of chillies gives an underlying oomph. Simple.

Orzo pasta

120g

408kcal

Dehydrated Red Leicester cheese

40g

244kcal

Full fat milk powder

20g

102kcal

Dried mixed vegetables

10g

6kcal

Dried crushed chillies

1g

0

I like my food and am taking plenty of snacks. The M&S bars are great, I have written on the benefits of Sesame Snaps before and have included a small bar of Green and Blacks choc, in various flavours, for the evenings.

Brew kit

My brew kit comprises a mix of tea bags, herbal teas, drinking chocolate, milk powder ( Nido in a v. strong small zip lock with a tiny plastic measuring spoon), some condiments, a bit of sugar and an OXO cube for each day. I like a bouillon/stock cube in camp soon after setting up. Each cube has just under a gram of salt so goes some way to immediately putting that back into the system. By the way, after using the things for some forty years for the same purpose, I have only recently found out I was crumbling them all wrong! Hurrah, another piece of cross contamination done away with.

I may yet leave it out, but I am currently planning on including one reserve meal. This is simply a stick of ramen noodles and a curry flavour OXO cube.

Trail mix, fruits and nuts

Trail mix is a simple and tasty mixture of 300g of Brazil nuts, dried Blueberries and Pineapple with Pomegranate flavoured cranberries (Craisins).

If I remember and get round to it, I’ll try and post on how this all worked out. The one thing I am mindful of (beside the weight) is the risk of carrying food that isn’t eaten.

Seeing as I am currently working out my meals and snacks for my forthcoming six day wander along the splendid Ridgeway. I have been looking a little more closely at the relative worth of the various snacks and nibbles that I am taking with me.

I have been aware of the remarkable weight/calorie ratio of Sesame Snaps for some time so paid a visit to the local supermarket to pick some up. I have no idea how long there have been additional choices but was pleased to find that the range (originally of one) now includes ‘with yoghurt‘ and ‘with coconut‘. A glance at the Polish manufacturers website tells me that there is also a chocolate covered version, but this has proved impossible for me to find. A similar type of confectionery used to be made with honey however this seems to have been excluded from the current recipe that Anglo-Dal work to.

Anglo-Dal is a private company established in 1939 who supply a range of food and drink to Middle East and European countries, including the UK. Sesame Snaps have been on UK shelves for as long as I remember and are a handy little product to consider for backpacking. The 30g packs comprise of three thin wafers. Each being made of 49% sesame seed encased in glucose syrup and sugar. I have not had problems of this actually melting but it can become a little sticky in the hand, so best to open with care and eat directly from the cellophane. The little wafers are sweet with a nutty, crunchy texture. It is worth noting that sesame seeds provide around 565 calories per 100g.

Half of the pack is sugar, so consumption needs to me moderate. But if a quick energy burst is required, snacking on these whilst on the go is a better option than a handful of gummy bears, jelly babies or most other sugar products. Despite the high sugar content, the original Sugar Snaps are actually a fairly healthy option. 30g contains 157 kcal (the original sesame wafers) of which only 8.67g is fat. High in nutrients, Sesame Seeds are rich in omega 3 oils. The product is lauded by many vegetarians- it is Dairy, wheat, gluten, soya and sulphite free, not that any of that particularly concerns me. There are slight calorific differences in the varieties, those with coconut provide 160 kcal per 30g pack and those with yoghurt 159 kcal per 30g pack.

While tasty (I especially like the yoghurt version) the yoghurt snaps do contain less actual sesame seed. Only 37% of sesame seeds are in these, while the yoghurt makes up 26%. The coconut snaps retain a 49% percentage of sesame seeds. Salt content is pretty low at 0.08g/30g.

If you like the idea of these but are scared off by the sugar content, I note that some creative people have successfully produced their own homemade versions that sound interesting. Me though, I can’t be bothered, so will continue to slip a couple of the little yellow packs in to a side pocket of my pack. Shelf life is good and they can handle a bit of a battering on the trail.

Packs of pitted green olives are a handy and ‘off the shelf’ way of supplementing the diet

Possibly an ideal addition to the ‘healthy camp’. These little packs of pitted olives are convenient, especially with their resealable packs. Each contains 70g of loveliness and there are other varieties too. Around 175kcal/100g. Pretty high in salt but that is no bad thing when exercising. A handy way of getting veg in to the diet. Try adding to one of those staples- couscous or noodles for a bit of variety. Now all I have to do is sort out the red wine